374 MOSTLY MAMMALS 
insect. The poison instilled into the wound thus made, 
although not causing immediate death, has a paralysing 
effect upon the muscles, and quickly deprives the insect of 
struggling powers, and consequently of all chance of escape. 
If the insect is a small one—one in fact that can be easily 
held in the pincers and eaten without trouble while alive— 
a scorpion does not always waste poison upon it. Thus I 
have seen a Paraduthus (one of the genera of scorpions) 
seize a bluebottle fly, transfer it straight to its mandibles, 
and pick it to pieces with them while still kicking... . 
An insect is literally picked to pieces by the small chelate 
mandibles, these two jaws being thrust out and retracted 
alternately, first one and then the other being used; the 
soft juices and tissues thus exposed being drawn into the 
minute mouth by the sucking action of the stomach.” 
Old fables die hard, and none is more persistent than 
the legend that the scorpion, when surrounded by a ring 
of fire, puts an end to its existence by turning its tail 
over its back and stinging itself to death. No matter that 
naturalists have proved that their poison is innocuous to 
their own kind, and that scorpions are killed by a very 
moderate elevation of temperature, the old, old story is still 
as firmly believed as ever by the general public. 
In an article published in the ninth edition of the 
“Encyclopaedia Britannica,” the Rev. O. P. Cambridge 
refused to believe that there was any substratum of fact in the 
popular legend, but Mr. Pocock, writing in Mature for 1893, 
is more merciful. He thinks, indeed, that a scorpion may 
occasionally sting itself, either by a random blow for an 
unseen enemy, or when it has been irritated by the contact 
of any strong stimulant, such as acid or mustard, or even 
that in the madness of pain it may be driven to turn 
its weapon on itself; but that in any case there is an 
